Stayed home to start digging post holes for the new buck pen (for Rascal). Actually had to straighten some existing posts that were solid but leaning. The ground in this spot is about 3 inches of good dirt followed by a foot of clay hardpan then gravel and rock. even with the powered auger, getting through the clay took some hand digging with the pry bar. once we were through that layer the rocks were too large for the auger to bring up and we had to dig those by hand as well.

We did get most of the posts in the ground, but the delivery of the new buck goat interrupted that project and I had to move this years babies and put the new boy in with next years mamas.  I’ll post a picture when I figure out where I downloaded it.

Monday Adam came out to help dig the rest of the posts and then he and Angela built the corner braces. the weather turned bitter cold, I finally got the water buckets plugged in and turned off the water to the far hydrant. We stretched fence in the rain and snow and sub zero cold. Once the fence was finished I re-built a gate that I liberated from the old pasture fence and once that was done, Rascal came off the tie out, and FatHead moved in with him to give the new buck some room to woo the ladies.

Egg count for the week of 11/09/2014 thru 11/15/2014:

• Collected – chickens 46, ducks 25
• Sold – 0
• Cartons filled – chickens 2, ducks 1

We took all of the cabbage to church and gave it away. Came back home with only 4 heads, not sure what we took in to start with. The small ones and the leaves/trimmings went to the goats for a treat.

Continued moving compost, had the pile completely moved by Saturday. Started working on a rudimentary shelter for Rascal. The weather is still nice enough, but threatening to turn wintery.

Egg count for the week of  11/02/2014 thru 11/08/2014:

• Collected – chickens 45, ducks 28
• Sold – chickens 3 dozen, ducks 7 dozen
• Cartons filled – chickens 4, ducks 2

Yeah, it’s been a busy month. So to keep things reasonably short, there will now be 4 weekly event and egg count summaries. Here we go –

I don’t remember much about this week, probably thinking I need to get working on the fencing for rascal’s pen so I can get him off of the tie out before winter arrives. I don’t think I got started. I did manage to start moving the old compost pile so I can get the goat pen cleaned out.

Put an extra layer of mulch on the bamboo, harvested all of the cabbage. It was the last thing that survived the previous weeks cold snap.

Egg count for the week of 10/26/2014 thru 11/01/2014:

• Collected – chickens 44, ducks 24
• Sold – chickens 2 dozen
• Cartons filled – chickens 2, ducks 2

They say it only takes 2 weeks to break a habit. That is true for good habits as well as bad. I have to get back to the schedule of updating this blog every week. There is not that much time left in the year and I have to see it through. Continue reading →

The trip seen through the splattered bug guts on the windshield. Continue reading →

begins really late on a saturday afternoon after all of the chores are done.

I think I will write this catch up post in two parts since I have 4 weeks of egg stats to post and there is a bunch of other stuff to report as well. Continue reading →

Building the duck house, and culling chickens, and cleaning up the tree limbs after the microburst takes a whole lot longer than I thought it would. So just the stats for this past week.

For the week of 9/14/2014 thru 9/20/2014 –

• Collected – 51
• Sold – 2 dozen
• Cartons filled – 4

when we culled the older chickens, only one showed any signs of egg laying activity. The new chicks haven’t started laying yet and the now older hens seem to be slacking off. I told them last night that if they don’t produce they go in the freezer. I’m not sure that will be enough motivation. Some of them seem to be molting so they may be out of production for a few weeks.

I have all four walls of the duck house built, just need to stand the front wall up and frame the “window” then put the doors in, and cap it with a roof of some kind. Should be simple.

You may now get on with your day.

Last week I was expecting my parents to arrive on Sunday. They got here on Saturday afternoon. I am glad we had more time to catch up on what they’ve been up to for the past month. However, having company always throws me off my schedule for some reason. Continue reading →

Many thing mark the end of summer for me, the start of school, the harvest of wheat or potatoes, the start of the state fair. Continue reading →

First the Egg count for the week of 8/17/2014 thru 8/23/2014

• Collected – 54
• Sold – 0
• Cartons filled – 4

First off even though the cooler weather has made the chickens lazy, I still have way too many eggs in the front porch refrigerator! Un-seasonable amounts of rain continued to fall this week and only the ducks are happy about it. Due to the rainfall and the fact that no farmers are irrigating at this point, the water district has shut down the flow to the point that I cannot irrigate my lawn and cherry trees. The grain we gleaned last week is proving to be great for sprouting, tomorrow I feed the first tray to the milkers and see what they think about it. I have been giving the goats, chicks and ducks raw grain and they all seem to like it.

That is all for this week!